Cancer claims life of Highlands County Sheriff's Office therapy dog

SEBRING, Fla. - The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office is mourning the loss of its therapy dog Trey, who recently passed away from cancer. 

According to a post on the agency’s Facebook page, Trey had been battling lymphoma. He fought hard, kept his spirits up and gave kisses until the end. 

Trey had been with HCSO for six-and-a-half years. While Stella was technically the agency’s first therapy dog, Trey started it all when volunteer Chaplain Allen Altvater brought Trey as a puppy to the HCSO offices after Deputy William Gentry was killed in the line of duty in 2018.

HCSO launched its therapy dog program after seeing Trey's impact on people. 

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According to HCSO, Trey has been on hundreds of deployments as a therapy dog. He helped elementary school students struggling with reading through the ‘Reading Buddies’ program, he was with children going through the difficult process of the interviews and court cases that come after being a victim of a crime, and he was with the families of the five women who were shot and killed at a SunTrust Bank in Sebring on Jan. 23, 2019. 

HCSO is asking the community to keep the Altvater family in their prayers.

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